UNIT 2 HEIDEGGER
CONTENTS
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Situating Heidegger’s Thought and Life
2.2 Earlier Philosophy of Heidegger
2.3 Later Philosophy of Heidegger
2.4 Critical Appraisal
2.5 Some of the Key-terms
2.6 Further Readings and References
2.7 Answers to Check Your Progress
2.0 OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this Unit, which is exclusively devoted to the study of the Philosophy of
Martin Heidegger, is to give a solid foundation to the contemporary Western philosophy, since it
is very much based on Heidegger. Once we have a good grip on his philosophy, it would be
comfortable to handle the other thinkers of contemporary period. Besides, study of Heidegger
will enable the students to see the difference and complementarity between the Eastern and the
Western way of philosophizing, since Heidegger’s earlier thought is more in line with the
western style of thinking, whereas his later thought has taken him more towards the east. We
shall begin by situating the importance of Heidegger and by taking a quick glance at his life and
works. We will be doing justice to both the phases of Heidegger’s philosophy with a rather
detailed analysis. But we will try to see both the phases together in their unity and difference. We
shall conclude the unit with a critical appraisal.
Thus by the end of this Unit you should be able:
-to understand the ‘specificity’ of Heidegger’s philosophical approach;
-to know as to how and why Heidegger is so influential;
-to have a taste of Heidegger’s existential analysis of Dasein;
-to enter into the poetic thinking of Heidegger-II;
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-to make a critical appraisal of a thinker
2.1 SITUATING HEIDEGGER’S THOUGHT AND LIFE
Martin Heidegger is widely acclaimed as the most outstanding and creative philosopher
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of 20 century, not merely for the novelty of his thought, but mainly for having brought
about a ‘revolution’ in Western philosophy. Almost every philosopher after Plato and
Aristotle, the great masters of Western philosophy, continued to philosophize in the same
tradition, i.e., without any serious change. Heidegger, on the other hand, stood single-handed against
the monolithic structure of Western philosophy of two millennia, pointed out its deviating growth,
and proposed a novel and primordial approach to philosophy. His thought has been so
fundamental and pivotal, that its influence is seen not only in the various branches of Western
philosophy and the different disciplines of knowledge, but it takes into its embrace both Eastern
and Western way of philosophizing. Besides, his philosophy is built on phenomenology
and existentialism, and has built up hermeneutics and postmodernism. Thus his thought
occupies a central position in the contemporary Western thought. Hence it is quite fitting
that the philosophy of Heidegger is given adequate importance in the philosophical course.
Heidegger was born at Meßkirch (South Germany) on 26 Sept. 1889 of Catholic parents.
His familial background of natural environment and agrarian community may have contributed
towards retaining an earthliness in his philosophy, preventing him to fly to the distant realms of
abstraction unrelated to concrete existence. He had the opportunity directly to get to know the
phenomenological method developed by Husserl who had the single greatest influence on
Heidegger. From being a privatdozent at Freiburg, Heidegger was invited to the university
of Marburg, where he published his most famous work, Being and Time. Through this work
phenomenology got a new formulation, and he came to be known in the philosophical
world. It was in Marburg that he came in contact with Bultmann and Paul Tillich, who were the
pioneers of an `Existential Theology', drawing much of inspiration from Heidegger. At the
retirement of Husserl, Heidegger was chosen to occupy the Chair of Philosophy in 1928. For a
year he was the Rector of Freiburg University, but he resigned the job, owing to criticism
from others, and disillusioned by the fanatical excesses of the Nazi party. He spent the second
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half of his life in a mountain-hut at Todtnauberg in Schwarzwald. The atmosphere of silence
and natural environment provided an ideal setting for his philosophizing. He died in 1976; and
his life can be summed up in a sentence: "He was always a seeker, and always on the way."
Heidegger has to his credit numerous works, most of which were published during his life.
Now all his works and lectures are being edited and published under the enormous
Gesamtausgabe which is expected to cover 57 volumes. The English translations of some of
the important works of Heidegger are the following: Being and Time; What Is Metaphysics?;
Basic Writings; Discourse on Thinking; Identity and Difference; On the Way to Language;
Poetry, Language and Thought; The Question of Technology and Other Essays; What Is Called
Thinking?; Basic Problems of Phenomenology; On Time and Being; etc.
2.2 EARLIER PHILOSOPHY OF HEIDEGGER
Fundamental Ontology
The problem of Being, that has inspired the whole western philosophy, has
remained forgotten in the history of western philosophy. It was this 'forgottenness of Being'
(Seinsvergessenheit) which motivated Heidegger to launch a new thinking. His philosophy is
the most consistent attempt to break away from the traditional domination of Western
thought by the category of ‘substance’ or 'thinghood'. He carefully avoids falling into
the old error of reifying ‘Being’. Hence he says that Being (Sein) is to be differentiated
from entity (Seiendes). Since Being is the being of some entity. In order to clarify the
meaning of Being we must start with some entity. And he finds that Dasein—the
ontological term for man—is the privileged entity to start with, as it is gifted with an
ontological transcendence—its ability to go beyond the entities to their Being. Thus he
takes the analysis of Dasein as the point of departure to the clarification of the meaning of
Being in general. This project of looking into the meaning of Being from the perspective of the ontic
pole, Dasein, is called `fundamental ontology'.
To work out the question of Being, Heidegger proposes a twofold task: one positive, the
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other negative. The positive task consists in the ontological analysis of Dasein in view of the
meaning of Being, and the negative task, in the destruction of the history of ontology.
The existential analysis of Dasein, according to Heidegger, must begin with an account of
Dasein in its everydayness, which will reveal ontologically significant structures, called
‘existentials’—essential ways of Dasein's Being. The existential analysis of Dasein brings
out ‘care' as its Being, leading to the primordial interpretation of its meaning as
temporality. With this we will have prepared the ground for the clarification of the
meaning of Being in general. By the ‘destruction of the history of ontology' Heidegger
intends to dig into the past to extract the primordial meaning of Being, frozen and petrified by
tradition. With this project in view Heidegger started his Being and Time, but in the midway of
his philosophical journey, he changed his approach, resulting in a Heidegger-II.
The method that Heidegger employs in his existential analysis of Dasein is
hermeneutical phenomenology. Phenomenology is associated with Husserl who developed it as
a method and gave it a systematic expression. Heidegger took inspiration from Husserl,
but departed from him radically by developing phenomenology into hermeneutical
phenomenology. In Heidegger's Being and time the method of hermeneutical phenomenology
gradually unfolds itself.
Preliminary Analysis of Dasein
Heidegger begins with the analysis of Dasein in its everydayness, which shows itself
primarily as Being-in-the-world, which is the fundamental way of its Being. The various other
ways of its Being (existentials) refer to the ‘how' of its Being-in-the-world. Although 'Being-in-
the-world' is a unitary phenomenon, in the phenomenological language it consists of two
complementary aspects: ‘Being-in’ and ‘the world’. Heidegger clarifies that Dasein's relation
to the world is ontological, rather than epistemological. We shall consider ‘the world’ and
'Being-in' separately, in order to arrive at the being of Dasein.
Heidegger considers ‘world’ neither cosmologically as an objective entity, nor
epistemologically as the object of knowledge, nor theologically as opposed to God, but
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ontologically as the horizon of Dasein's existence as Being-in-the-world. Since world is to be
seen in relation to Dasein, we can distinguish between the environmental and communal
world, according as Dasein relates itself to it.
Dasein's ordinary relation to the entities within the world can be either one of theoretical
cognition or one of practical dealings. According to Heidegger, the practical or existential
dealings are more basic than theoretical observation. In circumspective dealings the entities
show themselves as ready-to-hand (zuhanden) and in theoretical observation as present-at-hand
(vorhanden). Only in relation to some Dasein can an entity show itself as such a thing, and
in this relation entities show themselves as for the sake of Dasein. In Dasein's existential Being-
in-the-world it relates itself to the communal world of other Daseins. Dasein is essentially Being-
with (Mitsein), even in factual loneliness. As Being-with, Dasein is essentially for the sake of
others. Dasein, thus, is related to the environmental entities and communal entities (persons). Its
relation to the former is guided by `practical concern' (Besorgen) and to the latter, by ‘personal
concern' or solicitude (Fürsorge). World as the horizon or relation enables the humans to be
related environmentally and communally.
‘Being-in’ refers to Dasein’s disclosedness (Erschloßenheit). Dasein is disclosive in
three basic ways: as thrown, as projective and as falling. The inevitable and irrevocable character
of Dasein is its 'thrownness' (Geworfenheit). It is also called Dasein's ‘situationality’ or 'facticity'
(Fakticität). Situationality (Befindlichkeit) as an essential mode of disclosedness points to the
facticity of Dasein. Dasein discloses itself also projecting or understanding, which pertains to
Dasein's potentiality-for-Being (Seinkönnen) in the world. It refers to Dasein’s choosing of
possibilities. The projective character of Dasein represents more of the active dimension of
disclosedness. In its everydayness Dasein shows itself to be `falling' from its ownmost self.
Instead of revealing the unique self that Dasein is, it tends to be the `one', the `they' (das
Man). As thrown, projecting and falling, Dasein is its 'there'—its disclosedness; and it is the
way Dasein is essentially.
The analysis of Dasein in its everydayness that began with its basic state (being-in-
the-world) culminates itself in ‘care', the unity and Being of Dasein in its everydayness. The
unifying notion of care consists of its three structural constituents: existentiality, facticity
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and fallenness. Care stands for the existential totality of Dasin's ontological structural whole. It
is because Dasein's Being is ‘care' (Sorge) that it can relate itself to things by concern
(Besorgen) and to persons by solicitude (Fürsorge). In the phenomenon of care we have
arrived at the peak-point of the existential analysis of Dasein in its everydayness.
Primordial Interpretation
In order to make the ontological analysis more primordial, the hermeneutical
situation or the fore-structure of Dasein has to be considered. Clarification of the fore-structure
implies that we bring into our consideration the whole of Dasein, and in what way it can be
authentic. These hitherto lacked aspects of totality and authenticity of Dasein are unfolded on a
two-level interpretation: on ontological and ontic levels in the analysis of death and
conscience respectively.
As long as it is, there is in Dasein something ahead-of-itself, some not-yet. The
ultimate not-yet of Dasein is its death. Once the not-yet is no more, there is no more a Dasein.
Death as the 'not-yet' is already always present as soon as and as long as Dasein is. Dasein faces
death as a possibility which is its ultimate, exclusive, inevitable, most certain, and uncertain
regarding, making it a constant certainty. Death is inauthentically considered as an occurrence
of a moment in the distant future. Dasein's authentic Being-towards-death is `anticipation'. In
the anticipation of death we have the ontological characterization of Dasein's totality and
authenticity: totality, because anticipation refers to Dasein's total Being, and authenticity,
because it refers to Dasein's genuine (authentic) Being, permeated with finitude.
Heidegger shows, through the analysis of conscience, as to how the ontological
possibility of Dasein’s totality and authenticity becomes ontically concrete. Conscience is
presented as a ‘call’ addressed to Dasein to come back to its own self—to its total and
authentic Being. The call of conscience comes from itself, is addressed to itself and is a
summons to be itself—a call from itself to itself to be itself. The call points to Dasein's
ontological Being-guilty—the permeating nullity (Nichtigkeit) of Dasein. The authentic
response by Dasein to the presence of nullity in its Being is its ‘resoluteness’
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(Entschlossenheit). It is in this context that the radical finitude of Dasein is presented by
Heidegger.
As constantly faced with its ultimate possibility and ultimate facticity, Dasein is
confronted with the constant and closest presence of the ‘not’ in its Being. What Dasein
authentically projects towards is that into which it has already been irrevocably thrown. The
ultimate possibility and facticity of Dasein—the boundary-line—encircle and demarcate its
wholeness, which is but its limit situation. Dasein's finitude is nothing but its permeating
presence of the limit in its Being. Thus the Being of Dasein, as total, and authentic, is radically
finite.
The question that arises now is this: what enables Dasein to exist as anticipatory
resoluteness? The answer will provide the meaning of its finite Being. Heidegger shows that
temporality is the meaning and ground of Dasein's finite Being, and temporality is concretized in
historicality. Dasein, as existence, is ecstatic—standing out. It stands out into its possibility by coming
towards itself, it stands out into its facticity insofar as its ‘coming towards' is a `coming
back' to itself. This two-fold standing-out is a standing out into the present, into its limit-
situation. This three-fold standing-out is the single process of temporalizing. By appropriating
the ultimate ahead and the ultimate already, Dasein authentically exists. In such a notion of
temporality, the future is already present, the past is still present, as different from the ‘not
yet’ and ‘no more’ of the objective conception. Historicality belongs essentially to
temporality. Just as primordial time cannot be taken as a linear succession of 'nows', so also
historicality cannot be taken as a record or dead deposit of the past events. Dasein historizes by a
choosing and living of the existential possibilities. Such a choosing is not a fragmented
happening, but a single stretching out. The possibilities are rooted in the past (already), though
projected to the future (the ahead). In historizing, Dasein repeats (reclaims) its inherited
possibilities. Historizing Dasein sees the past consisting, not of dead factualities, but of
repeatable possibilities. Gandhiji's life of ahimsa and satya emits possibilities to be reclaimed,
rather than dead ideas to be reflected upon. History has thus primarily a futural character, as
it has to do with possibilities.
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Check Your Progress I
Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit
1) What does Heidegger intend by Fundamental Ontology?
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2) How does Heidegger work out Dasein as Being-in-the-world?
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3) How does Heidegger carry out the analysis of death and conscience in a related manner?
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2.3 LATER PHILOSOPHY OF HEIDEGGER
After having published Being and Time in its present form, Heidegger could not
continue in the same line of thought, as there was a ‘turn’ in his thought.
The ‘Turn’ and his Critique of Western Metaphysics
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The forgottenness of Being in the history of philosophy inspired Heidegger to think
the question of Being anew. But the way he carried it out in his Being and Time was still
contaminated by the metaphysical tradition that represents entities in their Being, relating them to
transcendental subjectivity. In his changed vision, Being is not clarified in its relation to
man, rather man is looked at in the light of Being. Thus the change from the transcendental
inquiry of Being from the perspective of the human being to an authentic thinking of Being as
the happening of truth is the so-called ‘turn' in Heidegger.
Metaphysical thinking begins with Plato and Aristotle, culminates itself in German
idealism, and becomes complete in Nietzsche. This monolithic growth is characterized by its
forgetfulness of Being, since it remained, ever since its inception, onto-theological in
character. Instead of considering 'Being' metaphysics has been considering the ‘unity' of
entities in its universality and ultimacy. Insofar as metaphysics considers the unity of
entities in their abstracted universal trait, beingness, it is ontology. Insofar as it looks into the
unity of entities as grounded in the highest entity, God, it is theology. Onto-theo-logical tendency
of metaphysics was kept nurtured during the two millennia, reaching upto Nietzsche. With
modem philosophy, metaphysics became epistemology with the emphasis on subject-object
polarity. Man becomes the arbiter of truth. This reached the climax in the absolute idealism
of Hegel. The extreme expression of human domination over Being is modem technology. The
scientific attitude of representation and objectification becomes one of manipulation of reality for
total power by the technological man.
Thinking of Being
In characterizing the 'thinking of Being' (Seinsdenken) Heidegger moves into a
language that is more poetic and less metaphysical in character. Thinking comes to pass in
the belonging together of Being and man, as a call and as a response. It is to be specially noted
that thinking here is not an intellectual activity as in metaphysical thinking.
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Heidegger explains in a variety of ways that Being presences or un-conceals itself to the
receptive humans finitely. In the various explanations, the following seems to be the most
important, as it brings Being and time together. In order to clarify the presencing of Being, Heidegger
exploits an impersonal verb like ‘it rains’, which refers to the subject-less ‘activity of raining’. Being,
thus, is not the subject, but the activity of presencing or un-concealing. There is a ‘giving' only
insofar as there is a ‘given' (gift) and a ‘receiver'. Hence to be complete in its meaning we must
say: Being is the giving itself in the entities to the humans. In the history of metaphysics
Being has been considered as the given or the gift, that is, the entity. But the giving of the gift
was not given thought to. The un-concealing of Being takes place in the mode of time.
When Being was thought as presence, an ‘idea' without any reference to time, it showed
itself as a static, eternal and infinite presence. The time-character speaks for its finite
presencing. As mentioned above, the presencing of Being takes place only insofar as there is a
receiving from the part of the humans. Heidegger characterizes the openness or receptivity from
the part of man variously as dwelling, releasement, shepherding, listening, thanking, responding,
gathering, seeing, etc. Heidegger finds that poets, mystics and thinkers listen to the voice of
Being. For them the greatest wonder is: that something is! They see the coming-to-be of
entities, the process of un-concealment.
After having considered Being as historical presencing and man as receptive opening,
Heidegger takes his thought to a higher realm—the event of appropriation or ‘event-ing’
(Ereignis), and towards the fag end of his thinking, he preferred to use the term, Ereignis,
instead of the metaphysically saturated term, Being. Event-ing shows itself as the ‘difference'
between Being and entities, the difference between the verbal and the nominal sense of
Being, the difference between concealing and revealing. This difference is the coming-to-be of
entities, the process of 'un-concealment'.
The Divine
Despite Heidegger's strong resolve to keep his philosophical thinking free from
theological contamination, the question of God crept into his thought especially at its later
phase. Heidegger’s thinking of the Divine has to be seen in togetherness with his critique of
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the metaphysical conception of God, which is but a corollary to his critique of Western
metaphysics. With the adoption of Greek philosophy by Christianity, the metaphysical notion of
God found a fertile soil. The two-world doctrine of Plato got baptized as the theory of the
natural and the supernatural realms. God is confined to the supernatural realm, and is
superimposed with metaphysical attributes of superlative degree. Thus ‘God’ was reduced to an
object of human estimation. Metaphysics thus nurtures a pseudo-God, a product of human
representation in the innumerable theological books. Aligning himself with the Nietzschean
proclamation of the death of God, Heidegger shows the caricature of the metaphysical God.
In keeping with his way of thinking Heidegger does not take us to a concept of God, but
directs our thought to the presencing (Wesen, Being) of the Divine—a much preferred term than
the metaphysically pregnant term, God. The Divine can be thought only in the light of the
truth of Being. As Being is thought as a process of presencing and absencing, so also the
Divine presencing is marked by absencing. Heidegger speaks of the absencing of the Divine
in terms such as ‘flight of gods', ‘destitute time', `darkening of the world, etc. The divine
absencing is a mode of presencing. The world's night of the Divine absence is to be taken as
the Holy Night of Divine presence. The divine presencing is very much ‘worldly' and
‘historical'. This is in clear contrast to the metaphysical God as the ‘absolute other' secured in a
supra-sensory realm, untouched by time and space. Authentic thinking of Being is at the same
time a thinking of the Divine. When one's disposition is more receptive, one's wondering at the
coming-to-be of things is an experiencing of the presencing of the Divine. Heideggerian
thinking of the Divine is a cosmic thinking beyond the distinction between philosophy and
theology, and beyond the barriers of religions and cultures. In the eminently purified disposition
of receptive thinking, the Divine gives itself to be thought; and this open disposition is
authentic thinking, primordial poetizing, aesthetic contemplation and genuine mysticism.
2.4 LET US SUM UP
A fundamental philosophy can be adequate only if it includes within its consideration the
various dimensions of reality. Heidegger's philosophy is not sufficiently multi-dimensional, since
its main and almost exclusive concern is truth as the process of un-concealment. While being
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faithful to this dimension, he neglected to some extent the other dimensions such as
intersubjectivity, ethics, God, faith, hope, earthliness, bodiliness, eros, etc. On the other hand, it is
not very possible for a seminal and creative thinker like Heidegger to be totally
multidimensional, as an eclectic thinker may well be. Besides, Heidegger has given a more solid
foundation to philosophy than many other philosophers. His philosophy remains open to the
other dimensions. The merit of a thinker consists not merely in having considered great many
problematics, but in not having closed himself to any of the problematics. His philosophy
provides a multi-directional opening to a multidimensional problematic. Although Heidegger
has given only minor importance to the questions of God, intersubjectivity, ethics, body, etc., he
has not closed his philosophy to the further consideration of them. It is because of the
primordiality of his approach that his thinking could be open to almost all dimensions of reality.
With his philosophy of finitude, Heidegger shows himself, not as a prophet of doom that instills
fear and despair, nor a prophet of hope that points to a future paradise, but as a prophet of
‘earthly paradise’—a prophet that calls on man to take over resolutely and receptively
his unique possibilities to be himself. It is to Heidegger's merit that he, in embracing a
philosophy of radical fnitude does not leave man to absurdity and triviality, but lets him find a
wholeness and meaningfulness in his radically finite situation.
Check Your Progress II
Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit
1) Dwell on Heidegger’s Critique of Western Metaphysics.
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2) Shed light on the notion of Being according to later-Heidegger
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3) How does Heidegger present the question of the Divine?
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2.5 KEY WORDS
Heidegger’s philosophy is known for its numerous terms that are specially coined with
typically Heideggerian meaning. We mention only a few of them:
Dasein: ontological term for human being (Da of Sein, the ‘there’ of ‘Being’
Facticity: givenness or thrownness
Care: the Being of Dasein as relation
Resoluteness: it combines the meanings of openness and decision; decisive openness
Onto-theological: the character of metaphysics that considers ‘Being’ in terms of ‘beingness’
and ‘highest being’ (God)
Event-ing: Ereignis, Being as happening
2.6 FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Translated by J. Macquarrie and Robinson. Oxford: Basil
Blackwell, 1973.
Puthenpurackal, Johnson. Heidegger: Through Authentic Totality to total Authenticity. Louvain:
Leuven University Press, 1987.
Mehta, J.L. Heidegger: The Way and the Vision. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1976.
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Richrdson, William. Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1974.
2.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1) What does Heidegger intend by Fundamental Ontology?
The problem of Being, that has inspired the whole western philosophy, has
remained forgotten in the history of western philosophy. This 'forgottenness of Being'
(Seinsvergessenheit) motivated Heidegger to launch a new thinking. He carefully avoids
falling into the old error of reifying ‘Being’. Hence he says that Being (Sein) is to be
differentiated from entity (Seiendes). Since Being is the Being of some entity, in order to
clarify the meaning of Being we must start with some entity. And he finds that Dasein—the
ontological term for man—is the privileged entity to start with, as it is gifted with an
ontological transcendence—its ability to go beyond the entities to their Being. Thus he
takes the analysis of Dasein as the point of departure to the clarification of the meaning of
Being in general. This project of looking into the meaning of Being from the perspective of the ontic
pole, Dasein, is called `fundamental ontology'. To work out the question of Being Heidegger
proposes a twofold task: one positive, the other negative. The positive task consists in the
ontological analysis of Dasein in view of the meaning of Being, and the negative task, in
the destruction of the history of ontology.
2) How does Heidegger work out Dasein as Being-in-the-world?
Heidegger begins with the analysis of Dasein in its everydayness, which shows itself
primarily as Being-in-the-world, which is the fundamental way of its Being. Although 'Being-
in-the-world' is a unitary phenomenon, in the phenomenological language it consists of two
complementary aspects: ‘Being-in’ and ‘the world’. World is to be seen in relation Dasein,
and so we can distinguish between the environmental and communal world, according as
Dasein relates itself to it. Dasein's primarily related to the entities within the world by way of
practical or existential dealings, and in such dealings the entities show themselves as ready-to-
hand (zuhanden) as different from present-at-hand (vorhanden) in theoretical observation. In
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Dasein's existential Being-in-the-world it relates itself to the communal world of other Daseins.
Dasein, thus, is related to the environmental entities and communal entities (persons) by
`practical concern' (Besorgen) and by ‘personal concern' (Fürsorge) respectively. ‘Being-in’
refers to Dasein’s disclosedness (Erschloßenheit). Dasein is disclosive in three basic ways: as
thrown, as projective and as falling. The inevitable and irrevocable character of Dasein is its
'thrownness' (Geworfenheit). Dasein discloses itself also projecting or understanding, which
pertains to Dasein's potentiality-for-Being (Seinkönnen) in the world. Dasein shows itself to be
`falling' from its ownmost self as well. The analysis of Dasein in its everydayness that began
with its basic state (being-in-the-world) culminates itself in ‘care', the unity and Being of
Dasein in its everydayness.
3) How does Heidegger carry out the analysis of death and conscience in a related
manner?
It is in the context of his clarification of the hermeneutical situation of Dasein that
Heidegger makes use of the analysis of death and conscience. He expalins death as the
ultimate not-yet of Dasein. Death as the 'not-yet' is already always present as soon as and as
long as Dasein is. Dasein faces death as a possibility which is its ultimate, ownmost, exclusive,
inevitable, most certain, and uncertain regarding, making it a constant certainty. Dasein's
authentic Being-towards-death is `anticipation'. In the anticipation of death we have the
ontological characterization of Dasein's totality and authenticity: totality, because anticipation
refers to Dasein's total Being, and authenticity, because it refers to Dasein's genuine (authentic)
Being, permeated with finitude. Heidegger shows with the analysis of conscience as to how the
ontological possibility of Dasein’s totality and authenticity becomes ontically concrete.
Conscience is presented as a ‘call’ addressed to Dasein to come back to its own self—to
its total and authentic Being. The call of conscience is a call from itself to itself to be
itself. The call points to Dasein's permeating nullity (Nichtigkeit). The authentic response by
Dasein to the presence of nullity in its Being is its ‘resoluteness’ (Entschlossenheit).
Check Your Progress II
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1) Dwell on Heidegger’s Critique of Western Metaphysics
Heidegger’s philosophy grew with his critique of the prevalent metaphysical thinking.
The monolithic growth of metaphysics is characterized by its forgetfulness of Being,
since it remained, ever since its inception, onto-theological in character. Instead of considering
'Being' metaphysics has been considering the ‘unity' of entities in its universality and
ultimacy. Insofar as metaphysics considers the unity of entities in their abstracted universal
trait, beingness, it is ontology. Insofar as it looks into the unity of entities as grounded in the
highest entity, God, it is theology. With modem philosophy, metaphysics became epistemology
with the emphasis on subject-object polarity. Man becomes the arbiter of truth. The extreme
expression of human domination over Being is modem technology. The scientific attitude of
representation and objectification becomes one of manipulation of reality for total power by the
technological man.
2) Shed light on the notion of Being according to later-Heidegger
Heidegger characterizes Being not as concept, but as the process of un-concealing or
presencing. In a poetic language he explains it. In order to clarify the presencing of Being,
Heidegger exploits an impersonal verb like ‘it rains’, which refers to the subject-less ‘activity of
raining’. Being, thus, is not the subject, but the activity of presencing or un-concealing. There is a
‘giving' only insofar as there is a ‘given' (gift) and a ‘receiver'. Hence to be complete in its
meaning we must say: Being is the giving itself in the entities to the humans. In the history of
metaphysics Being has been considered as the given or the gift, that is, the entity. But the
giving of the gift, the coming-to-be of reality, was not given thought to. The un-concealing of
Being takes place in the mode of time. When Being was thought as presence, an ‘idea'
without any reference to time, it showed itself as a static, eternal and infinite presence. The
time-character speaks for its finite presencing. Heidegger says that the receptive mortals
‘sees’ the greatest wonder: that something is! Being as the ‘coming-to-be’ of reality is
referred to as ‘event-ing’ (Ereignis) by Heidegger at the fag end of his thinking. It is the
‘difference’ between concealing and revealing—the process of 'un-concealment'.
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3) How does Heidegger present the question of the Divine?
Heidegger did not want to bring in the question of God in his philosophy; but it crept into
his thought especially at its later phase. Heidegger’s thinking of the Divine has to be seen in
togetherness with his critique of the metaphysical conception of God. With the adoption of Greek
philosophy by Christianity, the metaphysical notion of God found a fertile soil. The two-world
doctrine of Plato got baptized as the theory of the natural and the supernatural realms. God
is confined to the supernatural realm, and is superimposed with metaphysical attributes of
superlative degree. Thus ‘God’ was reduced to an object of human estimation. In keeping with
his way of thinking Heidegger directs our thought to the presencing (Wesen, Being) of the
Divine, which can be thought only in the light of the truth of Being. As Being is thought as a
process of presencing and absencing, so also the Divine presencing is marked by absencing.
Heidegger speaks of the absencing of the Divine in various terms. The divine absencing is
a mode of presencing. The divine presencing is very much ‘worldly' and ‘historical', as
different from the metaphysical God, untouched by time and space. Authentic thinking of Being
is at the same time a thinking of the Divine. When one's disposition is more receptive, one's
wondering at the coming-to-be of things is an experiencing of the presencing of the
Divine.
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